I | INTRODUCTION |
César
Chávez (1927-1993), Mexican American labor leader and cofounder of the
United Farm Workers of America (UFW) labor union. His work gained nationwide
attention for migrant farmworkers and helped improve their working and living
conditions.
II | EARLY LIFE |
Chávez was born near Yuma, Arizona. During the
Great Depression, his family lost their farm and became migrant farmworkers,
moving from one place to another in search of work. Chávez was raised in migrant
worker camps and left school after the eighth grade to work in the fields. He
joined the U.S. Navy during World War II (1939-1945).
III | FOUNDING OF THE UNION |
From 1952 until 1962, Chávez worked for the
Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights group. In 1962 Chávez and
Dolores Huerta founded a farmworkers union, known as the National Farm Workers
Association (NFWA). They hoped to establish a union that would provide field
workers with better working and living conditions and change labor laws to give
farmworkers more rights. Chávez and Huerta started recruiting members,
registering farmworkers to vote, and lobbying for better temporary housing,
increased wages, and clean drinking water and field toilets.
IV | STRIKE FOR GRAPE PICKERS |
In 1965 Chávez led 2,000 NFWA members on a
strike in support of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to
demand better wages for wine-grape pickers in Delano, California. From the
beginning of the strike, Chávez had to improvise tactics to counter the greater
power of the growers. In 1966 he led a 547-km (340-mi) march from Delano to the
state capital of Sacramento. The march brought national attention to the
grape-picker’s strike. Chávez also relied on less conventional methods; he
fasted for 25 days to emphasize the nonviolent philosophy of the unions.
In 1966 the NFWA and the AWOC, while both on
strike, merged to create the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC)
with Chávez as president. The UFWOC became an affiliate of the American
Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). In 1968
Chávez called on consumers nationwide to stop buying table grapes grown in
California to put more pressure on the growers. This boycott became one of the
most successful in U.S. history. Numerous student groups, churches, and
political organizations backed the union, and many California growers were
forced to sign union contracts in 1970. During that year, membership in the
union increased to 50,000 people. In 1973 the organization changed its name to
the United Farm Workers of America.
V | LEGAL REFORM |
In 1975 Chávez and his supporters pushed for
passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act. This law, the first
of its kind in the United States, guaranteed farmworkers in California the right
to join unions and bargain as a group. It also protected farmworkers from unfair
labor practices.
VI | LATER EFFORTS |
Chávez continued to lead more boycotts in the
1980s. However, he was criticized for not recruiting more union members, and the
union lost much of its political influence. By the mid-1980s, membership in the
UFW had dropped to about 15,000 people. In 1984 Chávez led the union in another
grape boycott to rally public support against the use of pesticides. However,
the boycott failed to generate much support.
VII | DEATH AND HONORS |
Chávez died in his sleep in 1993. In 1994
President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded Chávez the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. In 2000 the state of California
declared March 31, Chávez’s birthday, an official state holiday.
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